Video Technology and Police Interrogation

Overview

The audio-visual recording of police interviews with suspects provides a good example of several important issues in the relationships between technology and policing. Beyond matters of technological development and deployment, this entry notes the social and political reception by police of new technology; the relevance of the social meanings of technology as a potential solution to policing problems; problems which are raised by over-reliance on technological solutions; and problems in the social reading of images produced by audio-visual technology.

Key Issues

Technological Development and Deployment

The recording of questioning has a long history before introduction of the electronic recording which is the focus of this entry. In the thirteenth century, technologies (record-keeping procedures, synopses, archives, and indices) were developed by those responsible for the Inquisition along with bureaucracies to store and retrieve records of procedures, hearings, admissions,...

PPSC (Public Prosecution Service of Canada) (2011) The path to justice: preventing wrongful convictions.Report of the federal/territorial/provincial subcommittee on the prevention of miscarriages of justice, PPSC, OttawaGoogle Scholar